Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 12, 1927 — page 153: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

_ IN THE SADDLE OF BRONCO KING, 147 _ to get it for thirty thousand dollars, did you?” said the banker dryly. “Well, why not?” asked Thomas. “ I’d rather pay the young man one hundred thousand dollars for the sake of the feeling in the community, but I have done all I can in that direction.” “ Well, Mr. Thomas, I think my own feelings are worth something, too, if I am going to sell out my old friend’s son. If you were willing to pay one hundred thou- sand dollars directly for the place yesterday, you will pay one hundred thousand dollars to-day for the papers that will get you the property.” “‘ What!” roared Thomas. For a long moment they locked glances. Seth Mosier’s gray eyes were cold as steel now. Finally, the gaze of Thomas wav- ered and fell. “Vou win,” he surrendered. “It’s a piece of outrageous highway robbery, but I said money was no object, and i made up my mind to get this place and I’m going to get it. Ill meet these terms on one con- dition, though. I understand that the rest of the original King ranch is in your hands, having been taken over by you from time to time on mortgages. If my boy is going to ride in the saddle of Bronco King, as you say, I want him to be proprietor of all the land that King once ruled. I’ll buy the rest of that land from you at a reasonable price, and give the whole thing to the boy as a wedding present.” “T think I can suggest a better arrange- ment,” Mosier demurred, his eyes twink- ling now. “I want to do my share of this wedding present thing, as long as it won’t cost me anything. You are paving me a bonus of seventy thousand dollars on this mortgage and these notes. That sum is just about what it cost me to take over my holdings in the original King ranch through loans that I had made on mortgages that I had to foreclose. So you see, I can afford to make a wedding present of that extra land as long as you are paying for it. So | you'll take over the present ranch and ranch house, and deed that to the boy, and I'll deed the rest of the old King property to vir] ee a wedc ding Eee So weet ) stored to one ownership. Now what could be fairer than that?” Thomas laughed uproariously at this sug- gestion. ‘You Connecticut Yankees always were liberal with other people’s money,” he chuckled. “All right, I’ll agree.” In the next few days this arrangement was completed. One evening, when Seth Mosier came home to supper, he handed his daughter a sealed manila envelope. It contained a deed to the old long-detached King property. “Wedding present for you, Sally. Not to be opened till after the ceremony.” Two days later, Dan King returned from his camping trip up the Wind River, and his dude guests departed homeward. Those who met Dan that day in King City were puzzled to note that Dan seemed to be in nowise downcast over his situation. Ru- mor had outlined it to the town pretty well by now. ‘Not much like old Bronco, lying down and letting himself be licked like that,” was a frequent remark when Dan was the Bulbs ject of conversation. But Dan carried with him a baffling air of cool confidence. In fact, he was one of the last to hear of the coup Thomas had put over with Mosier’s aid. When finally some one cautiously asked him about it, he laughed at it as a joke at first, then hurried to Mosier to inquire about the matter. Dan sat in a daze too surprised at Mosier’s perfidy to speak, while the bank- er was calmly making his confession. “So you see, Dan, I saw you were lying down on the job and were going to let the place go anyway. I didn’t want to have the dirty job of foreclosing myself. Here was a chance to keep the old place sort of in the family. Sally will have it when she’s married, you know. I am doing it really on her account. She’s always greatly ad- mired that old house of yours.” Dan started violently. ‘“ Did Sally ask you to do this?” he asked faintly. “Oh, no, Sally knows ee abet: / Se xc _ €omicbooks.com